You’ll Be Right: the Damian McKenzie Story

Today we celebrated children in the special needs unit at Kedgley Intermediate School. They call these children superheroes and really care for them. We’ve been making a book together and we had the launch today with their families. These are some brave children!

Today I did a writing workshop with students at Southern Cross Campus in Mangere. Here’s what some of the students thought about our time together: “I enjoyed learning the skill of using the newspaper into making a whole interesting story.” “It was fun making our own stories and plays because ours was funny and relatable.”…

I spent this week visiting schools in Wellington to encourage young people to read. My main message is that books are so powerful they can change your life, as they did for people like Dr Ben Carson and Steven Adams. Whatever your talent, reading helps it grow bigger. There’s a lot of passionate librarians and…

Another day in Rewa … Today we launched another book of Manurewa children’s writing and art: Kua Kore Tōku Mataku – I’m Not Scared Now. Everglade Primary children wrote about proud moments when they had overcome something challenging. It was beautiful to celebrate with their families at the school’s first ever book launch 😁 The…

Cool morning working with filmmaker, writer, director and actor Vela Manusaute and his sons Rocky Manusaute and Hector Polataivao, filming girls from the Manurewa Marlins u13 Maidens. The girls are writing a book called Whakapau Kaha Mārika Mātou! We Go Hard! that shares their perspectives playing rugby league and it’s awesome to catch their voices…

Today I visited Wesley College and spoke to the students about dreaming big and how reading helps us discover amazing things about ourselves we never knew before.